Best Years
by ForgottenHale
Summary: Cassandra Delaney has always wanted a way to make something of herself and to make friends who will stand by her through thick and thin. Now she is about to receive this opportunity and be given a chance to change fate. These are the best years.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hi guys. I hope you like. If you do, review pleaaaaase.**_

_**Disclaimer: I may forget to do this every chapter soooooo…. I do not own harry Potter. Only the lovely JKR can claim that. :D**_

_**This story was inspired by a song called 'Best Years' by a wonderful band called Whitesnake. **_

_**You came along like a sun in the night**_

_**Took me out of the shadows**_

_**And into the light**_

_**Now these are the best years**_

_**Truly the best years**_

_**Of my life.**_

Chapter 1: Questions

A small girl of perhaps eleven years old sits alone in a clean, white room. There is very little inside, only a bed, a chest of drawers and a shelf, nothing more.

Slowly she stands and walks towards the chest of draws, unclasping an elegant silver locket with the letter C engraved upon it, entwined with simple but beautiful roses. She carefully lays the locket on top of the drawers as if expecting it to break at any moment. She then returns to her seat on the bed.

She sits with crossed legs and closed eyes, one arm outstretched. The serene expression on her face is such that if a person were to peer through the window she would appear to be meditating were it not for the locket flying towards her purposefully.

Her eyes snap open in surprise and excitement. This is the first time she has managed to control her 'strange affliction' with such ease.

Strange affliction. These are the words her foster parents use to explain the strange things that happen around her. She has lived with these people for as long as she can remember although occasionally she has flashes of her parents. Somehow, she knows that she has inherited the strange happenings from them.

The strange happenings (which had included the fireplace flooding with water and the occasional colour-changing cat, amongst other things) had led to today's events. It is the first day of the summer holidays and Cassandra Delaney has left primary school at last. She is working on controlling what she prefers to call 'a gift'. She has already gained a measure of control over it but she does not want any mishaps at her new school.

She smiles and gently prises open the locket. She eases out a small, folded piece of paper, the words written on which she has already committed to memory. She reads them again, tracing the words with her finger.

_Cassandra, your father and I leave this with you in the full knowledge that we will soon be departing this world. We leave you all of our family pictures but ask that you do not place any within this locket. This locket is for the memories you are going to create for yourself. This locket is for those who will become the family we could not be. Not necessarily the people who will end up raising you but the people who you know will always be there for you and those you will always be there fore. These are the best years. Enjoy them. My love, and your father's. Mum x_

There is a knock at the door. Cassandra looks up with interest in her slightly moist eyes.

'Cassandra! Her foster mother calls. A lady called Minerva is here to talk to you.'


	2. Chapter 2

_**Do not own… sad face…**_

Chapter 2

Cassandra folded the paper, placed it back in the locket and clasped the locket around her neck. She cautiously wandered down the stairs and found her foster mother sat at the kitchen table with a severe looking woman who, nevertheless, looked friendly and trustworthy.

She stood and shook Cassandra's hand in greeting. 'Miss Delaney, I must admit I am pleased to see you are looking well. I was a close friend of your parents and am deputy headmistress of a private boarding school. I am here to inform you that when you were born, your parents put your name on the list and paid your enrolment for the full seven years, They were very specific in that, should you be in someone else's care at the time you turned eleven, I was to provide you with the information you needed and to escort you to the school personally. I have discussed with Mrs Hill,' here, Cassandra's foster mother nodded in confirmation, 'and you are officially a ward of the school, as of today. This is specifically stated in your parents' will'

Cassandra stared, mouth agape, at Minerva. As she processed this, she began to grin. Her parents had planned everything out and set her up for the future. She was grateful to this woman for taking the time to personally deliver the news.

She was dismissed shortly after to pack all of her personal possessions, as she would not be returning. It did not take very long and all fit easily into one suitcase. She did not possess very much of her own but she did have everything she needed.

After a tearless but cordial farewell, Cassandra turned her back on the house and prepared to embark on a new life. Little did she know how different it would really be.


End file.
